Widening the Pedagogical Net: Upcoming Conferences and Twitter Chats

Hello, dear readers! ‘Tis Kella, your friendly writing center Resource Specialist, and I’m super excited to spend the next 2 weeks blogging on a Wednesday-Friday schedule this week and a Monday-Wednesday schedule the week of Thanksgiving. There’s so much to share, learn, and think about, so please keep your comments coming. We would love to hear from you!

In today’s post, I wanted to draw your attention to some wonderful conference opportunities and calls for proposals.

• 2012 East Central Writing Center Association Conference – Proposals are due by Monday, November 21, 2011; please see http://ecwca.org/ for more details.
• 2012 International Writing Across the Curriculum Conference – Proposals are due by Tuesday, November 29, 2011 (deadline extended from previous deadline); please see http://ceps.georgiasouthern.edu/conted/IWAC.html for details.
• 2012 European Writing Centers Association Conference – Proposals are due by Thursday, December 15, 2011; please see http://writingcenters.org/2011/05/2011-2012-conference-calendar/ for details.
• In fact, definitely check out the International Writing Centers Association’s website and 2011-2012 Conference Calendar regularly! New conference opportunities await: http://writingcenters.org/2011/05/2011-2012-conference-calendar/

Lastly, for those of you who enjoy Tweeting or are Twitter-curious, there are some outstanding writing-and-education-related Twitter conversations happening on a weekly basis. To get a primer on some of these super fun electronic conversations, please read Erin E. Templeton’s excellent ProfHacker article (January 24, 2011), “Enrich Your Teaching Through Social Media.” I just took part in the #FYCchat (First-Year Composition Chat) on a Wednesday night (9-10 pm ET) last month, and I thoroughly enjoyed the ideas and excellent teaching tips that the participants from across the nation were freely sharing. For details, check out Lee Skallerup’s awesome First-Year Composition Chat blog compendium: http://fycchat.blogspot.com/

Other cool Twitter conversations include:

• #InnovationsLabchat – http://innovationslab.wordpress.com/
• #engchat – Every Monday at 7 pm ET – http://engdocollaborative.wikispaces.com/EngChat+on+Twitter
• #edtech – a great hashtag to search to see what other teachers and instructional designers are discussing related to all things ed-tech

And more!

So, what are your favorite ways to use social media to widen your pedagogical net? We’d love to hear your ideas, so share away!

Kind regards,
Kella

Michaella Hammond